Envy

by SergeantBuck

Full Circle

Twilight looked over at her mentor's sibling. Luna's gaze had hardly shifted from the moon as she'd recalled her past for the last two hours. It seemed to shake her again, and the unicorn felt a slight pang of regret for the emotions she'd dredged up from the Princess.
"What about the voice in your head? Did she leave you after..." Twilight hesitated before speaking. "After you were banished?"
Luna stared out at the stars for awhile longer. "It was a reckless mistake of mine. Jealousy is a fickle friend, Twilight, just as fame or fear. It drives you to do things that you'll regret. They seem like right decisions at the time, but they can destroy you. And Sanguina? I had assumed that the Elements of Harmony had purged me of her iron hoof when Celestia imprisoned me. I was wrong."
"She came back?"
"It would be a long time, but eventually she returned. And she was not pleased."

It had been almost a millennium now and Luna still remained on the moon. How much had changed since she was gone? Time stood still on the moon. She lost track of the days after the first decade and had spent most of her spare time building a castle from the rocks. It wasn't as if she needed a place to hide, but it was a place she could call home until her return.
As she stared at the earthrise, a figure appeared before the Princess of the Night. An alicorn mare colored of blood marched towards Luna's makeshift castle, her black cape trailing behind her. She tossed about her deep crimson mane and twisted her neck, emitting an audible cracking sound as she flexed it about. Something about this pony seemed familiar, yet Luna knew she had never seen her before in her entire life.
"I have returned for you, my vessel," the bloody mare spoke. The voice in her throat was the same one that had spoke to her half a millennium ago, when she became Nightmare Moon.
"Who are you?" the midnight alicorn asked.
The red mare let out a throaty laugh. "I am Sanguina, the Fallen Angel of War. And you, Princess Luna, are in my debt."
"Your debt?" Luna repeated. "What do you mean? I owe you nothing."
Sanguina smiled at her, revealing long snakelike fangs jutting from her upper row of teeth. "You should know by now, Luna, the perils of a Soul Pact. I gave you my power and you squandered it on your own pitiful dreams of revenge upon your sister. It is your turn to perform a favor for me."
"If I refuse?"
"Then I shall take you by force. When I am done avenging my own imprisonment on Princess Celestia, I will leave your soulless husk to wander the depths of the Everfree Forest, one more restless demon in the darkness."
"You wouldn't dare!" Luna lowered her head, directing her horn towards the demonic alicorn standing before her.
Sanguina sneered at her. "I have tasted your soul, Luna. If you will not willingly submit, then I have no choice."
Luna felt a familiar cold seeping through her, watching as the war alicorn vaporized into a fine cloud of mist and enveloped her in it.
"Who placed you in this prison, Luna? Who is the one responsible for the last millennium you spent alone?"
"I am..." Luna said, trying to hold back her tears. She watched in horror as her hooves faded to black, the darkness creeping up her legs and over her shoulders. Sanguina's voice her head spoke again, and she winced as pain shot through her body.
"Why do you fight me? Let go. It's useless."
The moon slowly began fading to black. It was useless to attempt fending off Sanguina's hold. She laid down in the dust as she waited for the blackness to take her.
"Celestia," she whimpered. "Help me."

"What happened next?" Twilight asked excitedly.
"The rest of the story is what you already know. After Sanguina dominated me, she paraded through Canterlot as Nightmare Moon, trying to surprise Celestia at the Summer Sun Celebration. My sister had hidden herself away and I wasn't freed until you and your friends used the Elements of Harmony to vanquish her. Sanguina was expecting Celestia herself to face her, not a young unicorn and her five friends. She greatly underestimated what you are capable of.
"But if we were the ones to free you, why didn't the Elements break the curse a thousand years before?"
"There are only two explanations that I can find. First, it was the end of the Soul Pact. Any sort of pact is a powerful magical bind that cannot be broken by any means until the pact is complete. Once Sanguina had used me as her vessel to return to Equestria, her end of the pact had been fulfilled."
"And the other?"
Luna sat beside Twilight on the couch. "It's no more than a theory, but I believe that the Elements produce power depending on how many ponies are wielding them. Celestia's magic was enough to banish me to Carcere in Astra, and I assume it was then that Sanguina left me to consider her options for revenge before returning, which meant that the curse had not been broken yet. When the six of you welded the Elements, there was enough power to not only sever Sanguina's bond to me but repair my fractured soul."
"You can do that?" Twilight's eyes were the size of saucers.
Luna smiled at her sister's pupil. "You have so much to learn about magic, dear Twilight. When you struck me with the power of the Elements for the second time, I felt something I hadn't experienced for an age."
"Which was?"
"Friendship. I had been alone for so long, and the power of your friendship restored me." Luna felt her eyes begin to well up.
"Thank you, Twilight Sparkle. Thank you for freeing me and for listening to me."
The little unicorn let out a long yawn. "You're welcome, Princess."
Luna levitated a blanket from one of the library cabinets and draped it over Twilight, who was now snuggled up beneath her wing. She turned her neck to greet the gentle footsteps of her sister stepping into the library.
"Look at her," Celestia said softly. "She's so cute when she's asleep. Did you two have a good time?"
"Yes, we did."
As Celestia turned to leave, Luna held up a hoof. "Tia, wait!"
"Yes, Luna?"
"I love you."
Celestia smiled at her sister before stepping out of the library. "I love you too, little sister."